Chapter 227: the nemesis of human soldiers dipers

The morning was still bright and early, but unknown to the inhabitants of the enormous animal kingdom, undercurrents were ongoing currently under their noses.

Due to Clark’s meticulous planning, the most vulnerable and important group that needed to be protected in this escape, the 2 squads led by Anna and Diana had specific directions to move towards.

Both leaders of the Spartan and Daland squads had the greatest number of soldiers, so letting them escape first was the priority in their overall plan’s scale of preference.

Both squads did not take the same route to infiltrate into the enemy territory, they took different pathways to enter inside, but both paths led to the same ultimate direction.

This was to avoid the situation where one squad being compromised would spell the whole allied squad’s doom.

Diana felt sweat trickling down her neck as she firmly grasped the stealth coverage device in one hand while holding her sword in the other as she led the Spartan soldiers forward.

The atmosphere among the squad of slowly advancing soldiers was extremely tense and offensive, as they fought hard to suppress their tense nerves.

They would have opted to escape in the night, but most of the leaders declined the idea as the dangers of the night were even more unpredictable if they were discovered by the animals.

As Diana and Anna led their soldiers, Benny was also already advancing with his squad across the left flank of the animal territory.

Because of Clark’s information, their movements were extremely precise, they roamed the territory of the animals like this was their backyard. Compared to the other 2 squads, their movements were far smoother.

Only the position of their 2 leaders was unknown to the other soldiers, Clark did not see any need in revealing their position to them.

He only communicated with them at intervals to guide them, and also to check up on their status.

To completely eliminate the risk of getting discovered due to noise, all the leaders of the 3 squads were to communicate with him only, and every communication was to be by their implants.

If the leader of a squad wanted to issue an order to his/her soldiers, they had to do it through bodily gestures and signs.

It did not take long before they finally started encountering the animals’ settlements. This did not stop them; it only slowed their speed a bit as they started weaving expertly across the territory of the beasts.

As the day became more advanced, the animals finally started waking up to face their day’s activities. This was when the soldiers’ real problems started manifesting.

The soldiers had to move more carefully, as the chaos like that of a blooming city took over the animals’ territory.

Clark already predicted this though, and they already practiced how to safely maneuver their way past through virtual simulations. This practice’s effects showed immediately, as they smoothly evaded the beasts.

The time slowly ticked away as the soldiers continued their high-risk escape mission. It was already over an hour since they started moving, it seems that everything was good as the beasts were still clueless that they were there.

…

2 white-clothed figures moved rapidly across the snow ground smoothly, while climbing the slightly elevated animal settlements with swift moves.

Clark and Dickson were hard at work, as they stealthily followed and guided the moves of their soldiers. Compared to the others, their movements were more daring and purposeful.

Though the soldiers were hidden by the stealth coverage device, this was not a guarantee that they could not be sighted.

The animals residing in the more elevated settlements posed more exposure threats to them, as them looking down from a higher place would make the wind speed of the territory more trackable to them.

If there was a super perceptive exobeast among them, the difference in wind speed caused by the soldiers’ passage could be discovered.

Clark and his companion worked relentlessly to solve this hidden problem, as they secretly entered the settlements. If the owner was at home, they silenced them through their deep sleep injections.

They did not want to kill yet, the risks attached to it were too much.

As Clark did all these with Dickson, he would stop at times, prompting a holographic screen to appear before him. Through this, he kept constant track of the whole territory and his soldiers.

Though he knew that they still had a long way before seeing safety, he felt a little relieved on seeing that his soldiers were not exposed immediately.

“If we go on like this, we have a high chance of escaping”.

He stopped frequently with Dickson after dealing with the troublesome fellows, as he used every opportunity to check his soldier’s progress.

After 1 hour 30 minutes, his soldiers finally crossed the yellow region marked on his screen safely. This was a good sign, as it meant that they were progressing.

He continued his monotonous task like that, keeping track of the troublesome exobeasts and his soldiers.

The sun was suddenly snuffed out of the Everest’s sky, as the more commonly seen gloomy weather of this region quickly took over again to show its domination.

The soldiers tried hard to ignore the change of weather, as they continued forward silently. Though the monotonous movements were affecting their psyche, they did not dare complain.

“Finally!”

Clark heaved another deep sigh of relief as his soldiers crossed the red zone of the animal’s territory, they were now in the purple zone.

Though he was happy, his wariness and slight fear grew more on seeing this as the animals at the higher parts of the hierarchy system were residing here. This was a danger zone.

He did not even get to adjust his emotions before an abnormal reaction was stirred by the animals, his back straightened immediately as his eyes stared sharply like an eagle’s.

“What happened…?”

“Shhh” He did not let Dickson finish before he shushed him, his expression was growing more serious by the second.

“Order a halt immediately, something is wrong”. He quickly sent through his implant, as the 3 leaders of the squads obeyed without hesitation and stopped.

Nobody questioned him, they all kept silent as they wondered what made him suddenly give such an order. Their backs were already soaked with sweat, as their brain started cooking up horrifying imaginations.

Before his soldiers moved, Clark already set the bean-sized drones that he embedded with stealth coverage devices into every corner of the animals’ territory.

Through them, he could see whatever was going on inside the animals’ territory, and right now, something was evidently wrong.

Since the first time that they came here, even when they came for the surveillance mission, they already noticed and confirmed that all the animal settlements were built above the surface of the snow.

Clark’s scanning device even scanned under the snow several times, and it confirmed that there were no settlements built under the ground.

This was a confirmed deal already, but the sight currently before him challenged this as his face grew more and more ugly. As soon as his soldiers stepped into the purple zone, the reaction started.

At first, he thought that it was a result of a natural hole under the ground that was dragging the snow in, but it seems that he was wrong.

The snow covering a region of about 10m kept on shaking and vibrating, like something fearsome was about to emerge from under it. He no longer hesitated on seeing this, as he hastily gave new orders to his soldiers.

“Move quickly, temporarily retreat. There is something under the snow, I can’t verify it yet”.

Hearing the sound through their implant, Diana and Anna reacted extremely fast as they quickly made retreat signs with their hands. The soldier started retreating as they understood the sign immediately.

Due to the concentration of animals around, their retreat was very clumsy as they could not afford to move too fast least they hit a randomly moving beast.

Time seemed to have stopped all of a sudden, as Clark kept on staring pointedly at the vibrating snow while urging his soldiers to move faster with his eyes.

Breaths seized, as Dickson kept quiet and waited while hoping for the best. Benny and his soldiers were already expecting the worst, and their fears came true.

“Damn!!”

Clark quickly cursed as the figure causing all the commotion under the snow emerged before his soldiers could leave its sight range, he felt pissed off even though they were still under stealth mode.

Calming himself, he finally looked closer at what this figure…, no, figures were. It now became evident that whatever came out was not one, but multiples.

The snow quickly fell off to show the identity of the 3 figures as animals. They looked just like a big lion, but their skin had circle stripes at various locations and their manes were far lesser than a real lion’s.

They were white-furred, as Clark quickly associated them with the lion alpha, but he shut this thought down as he clearly recognized that these 2 fellows were not lions.

“What are these?” He could feel that they were animal species that he’d seen before, but he could not remember them.

As he was drawn into this conundrum, his soldiers were still escaping. What made him shocked was that despite them still under stealth, these 3 strange animals were looking directly at their locations.

His heart skipped a beat immediately, this was when he remembered to quickly search the internet to get their species and identity.

His implant’s enormous processing power quickly searched, as a result finally presented himself before him.

“No…, no, not this fellow, we are screwed”.

Seeing the information that was displayed before him, he shuddered as he finally recognized these 3 big animals. This realization was so shocking to him, that his heart turned cold immediately.

These 3 predators were called Dipers. They were not around in the 21st century, they came about during the late stages of the 21st century as a result of the union between tigers and white manned lions.

What especially made his heart sink was that these fellows had a special ability, their noses could naturally detect the smell of humans no matter how hidden it was.

Realizing all this, he knew what would come next. The Dipers did not disappoint.

Grii!! Grii!!

After their abnormally long noses twitched at the air a bit more, they finally opened their big mouths and started making strange growling sounds, but they were extremely loud.

Just like an alarm bell for an emergency, the sound reverberated across the territory as every animal promptly paused what it was doing and looked at the location of these remote alarm ringers.

“We are discovered”. All the soldiers’ hearts sank.

[Thank you for reading this chapter, I really appreciate it. Please, leave your power stones behind to support the book. Purchase privilege for The Conspiracy Of The Elites and read a varying amount of chapters ahead of regular readers.]